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How to get usage data on any application

Scense 10 lets you monitor the usage of applications. But what if you want to monitor applications that are not delivered by Scense?

By simply checking the box that says ‘Enable metering for this Application’ you can tell the Scense application monitor service to start monitoring the usage of the application. This works for all applications you are delivering with Scense, but it also works for applications you’re not delivering with Scense.

In this fictional scenario we would like to monitor the usage of the Windows Registry Editor (regedit.exe). Regedit is not delivered by Scense as it is part of the operating system. In Scense there’s no application object for Regedit, so we can’t enable software metering for it.

This is very easily solved by simply adding a new Generic Application Object for Regedit. After creating the generic application we should remove the embedded Taskset because we don’t want any runtime activity for this application object. This leaves us with an empty Application shell that we can use to enable software metering.

It’s probably a good idea to move this application object to a dedicated folder for application objects that are created with the sole purpose of enabling software metering (applications not delivered by Scense).

Now that we have the application object for Regedit we can start configuring it. We should ignore all other pages and only configure the Metering page.

First we need to enable metering and specify some details about the usage context of the application.

Next, we tell software metering what program it should monitor. We do this by clicking the ‘Edit Programs’ button, click Add, browse to the regedit.exe program and select it.

After clicking OK several times, the Scense software metering system will pick up on this new application and start monitoring it. This can take up to 30 minutes by default. If you want to speed up things you can restart the Scense Application Metering Service.

Each usage of regedit.exe will be stored and prepared for reporting and after a while you will see the registry editor appear in your report viewer.